The Soccer Game That Stopped My Heart

This weekend was the end of season tournament for Mackenzie. It consisted of two games on Saturday - 9 and 5 - and at least one game on Sunday, two if they won the first three games. I love the team she plays on, the girls are friendly and warm and the parents kind and inviting. Her coaches have taught her a LOT and this team has really been a great fit for her.

I wasn't able to get to the Saturday morning game and she caught a ride with one of the other players - I completely owe this parent a coffee and a big drink, as the family has brought her home from almost every practice - and as she left, I reminded my daughter, "Take your medicine on the way." She has to take two puffs of albuterol and 6 puffs of Intal 30 minutes before her practices and games. (This is the medication that her asthma specialist has prescribed. Pretreating with only albuterol doesn't keep the asthma at bay. Intal, although an older medication, has been a godsend to her sports activity. And it's being discontinued, so we are going to have to start over again, trying to find a magic combination - which tires me.)

I was unhappy to have to miss her game, but Mackenzie is such a self sufficient child that it never phases her. (And how I feel about her incredible self sufficiency is a whole 'nother post.) She was completely comfortable with being at the game without me. While she was at her game, I took 2 kids to Muay Thai and then Emma and Riley had their last soccer game. Then I went to my Muay Thai class. Right before my class started, Mackenzie called me from the house. "I scored, Mom! I scored THREE goals!" This was great news, for she hadn't scored all season. I was delighted for her and promised to be at the next game. Which I was.

The game was tight and the girls were really playing well. I was watching my daughter and noticed that she seemed to be breathing heavy. She WAS running a lot, but it seemed to be something more, something out of the ordinary. I watched her a little more intently and after a few minutes, noticed that she was lifting her shoulders when she breathed. Placing one hand on her chest, she raised her other hand - the signal that she needs to come out of the game. She was playing on the opposite side of the field from her coach - the parent side. I called to her, "Are you ok?" She shook her head no.

At this point,the first squiggle of fear coiled through me. Mackenzie rarely, if ever, asks to come out of the game. I think she'd done it once prior in the entire season. She typically begs to be allowed to stay in. She stopped running - standing still is also foreign to this kid - and raised her hand again. And a funny look came over her face, and she folded forward and started coughing. I stood up as the game continued around her, calling to the referee, "My daughter needs to come out!"

And my daughter collapsed.

Ignoring the strict rules that no parent is to EVER cross onto the field, I ran towards her. I reached her and she gasped, "I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" I helped her to lay back on the field and saw, out of the corner of my eye, one of her coaches running towards me with her soccer bag. "You are breathing, Mackenzie. If you weren't, you wouldn't be able to talk. Just relax," I said to her, for her eyes were wide and she was deathly afraid. I grabbed the bag from the coach, rifling though it in search of the inhaler, and found the spacer, which had the Intal loaded - the wrong medicine. (Intal's not a rescue medication, but a preventative.) I ripped it off and pawed through the bag for the albuterol. One part of my mind noticed that her nostrils were flaring and I could hear the wheezing - never good signs. I found the albuterol and primed it into the air.

It was empty.

Shit. I threw the empty inhaler to the side and grabbed another. It too was empty. What the hell? The third one I found was light but it contained medicine. Fitting the spacer to her face, I squeezed it off. Within six breaths, she was better. I squeezed off another shot into the air and noticed that this inhaler, too, was now empty. Mackenzie stood up, her coach took her off the field, and I went back to the parents side. The ref stopped me and apologized - he didn't know, he said. "It's ok," I said, as I walked back to my seat on legs that had suddenly gone rubbery, heart pounding in my chest. Just like that - it was over. She was fine, but I was completely changed.I shook off and on for the rest of the evening - after a phone call to the on call allergist, a trip to the pharmacy, follow up phone calls - but my daughter was completely unfazed. She played brilliantly in the championship game on Sunday, scoring the only two goals in the game. Her team came in third. When I grilled her today, she told me that she remembers very little of the entire event -
it was hazy and her head felt like it was light. She's completely recovered, but I wonder if I will ever be nonchalant again about asthma. I have been scared before with my kids - broken bones, seizures, food allergies - and this was BAD.

Never again will I miss a game, for what if this had happened at the prior game, the one I'd missed?

All I kept thinking was thank goodness she had THREE inhalers in there! My son has asthma and I only ever send him anywhere (school) with one inhaler. I have a spare at home but I don't keep one with me. I think I will now.

I hear you, my totally self sufficient daughter has SVT (heart irregularity) and when she has an attack at a swim meet, my heart almost stops beating. I'm always scared to death that this time I won't get it to slow down.

My son, 15, most like me, asthmatic, allergic, can't have the flu or h1n1 shot, was home with asthma one time. His Nannie (my mother in law) was taking care of him that day. I called home and talked to him for a second and did not like how he sounded. I drove home- like a thirty second drive- and somehow he had gotten worse. I told him to walk to the van in his slippers and pjs as he was, we were going to the ER. Not ten seconds up the road he could not breathe and I went to pieces. I had to pull into the RCMP station and rush in and get somebody to call an ambulance. The amubulance guy came and by then my son could not speak. The guy told him to just keep puffing on that rescue inhaler until we got to the ER. (In my province we do not have paramedics, just ambulance drivers basically) I will NEVER FORGET that feeling. (wipes tears from eyes and wonders how moms get through the day...) There is a special God for children.

I can only imagine the horrible feelings you had. Thank God she is alright and that you were there. I agree, don't even think about what if it had happened at the other game. It didn't. You were there. You were right where you needed to be. Just as you always are.

Congratulations to her on the goals, and the team on the 3rd place finish.

It is so scary having kids with asthma! I have 3, now grown. My son doesn't have the common characteristic of the wheezing sound and I always had to watch him closely during sports to monitor how he was doing, as coaches couldn't pay that close of attention. Our oldest daughter had a severe asthma attack on the basketball court during middle school I had to run onto the court during a tournament game to attend to her. I took some flack about interrupting the game from some people who have no idea that asthms is one of the leading causes of death in childhood aside from car accidents!
So glad you had multiple inhalers, that's a good reminder to me to check the ones I have in the cars.
During softball tournaments, we traveled with a battery operated pumo-aid nebulizer to deliver albuterol. It was well worth the investment after the first averted 911 call/trip to the ER!!!

Asthma scares me. I am thankful that I only have one with it. He had an attack last year that landed him in the hospital for 2 days. So scary. I just kept thinking, "I can do heart stuff. I know the heart stuff! But I don't know anything about asthma!"

Wow!

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About Me

Carmen Staicer is a whirlwind of energy and execution, who never sleeps and drinks way too much coffee. She works from home as Social Media Programs Manager for SheKnows, and is the mom to six kids, most of whom play instruments, sing or dance and all of whom are much smarter than she will ever be. In other words, her house is never ever quiet or still. A concentration of asthma, food allergies, spectrum disorders and learning disabilities means that she spends an awful lot of time second guessing herself and Dr. Googling, as well as learning to cook everything the family might like to eat. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, boxing (she has her Black Belt in Muay Thai), sleeping, exploring coffee shops, photography, ballet class and cooking. She excels in being a smart mouth and has her major in sarcasm, with a dual minor in BS studies and avoiding laundry.